Kirk eyes Senate seat

January 05, 2009

North Shore Republican Rep. Mark Kirk said today that he had been "looking hard" at running in a special election for the U.S. Senate seat held by President-elect Barack Obama before Democrats pulled the plug on the idea.

Kirk, who is entering his fifth term in Congress after a heavily contested fall race, also said he was not interested in making a run for Illinois governor in 2010."It's so corrupt, so dirty, you wonder if you want to apply your life's work" to it, Kirk told the Chicago Tribune's editorial board. "I'm more of a federal guy."

Kirk has been looked to as a political leader to help engineer a rebound of the state's moribund Illinois Republicans -- particularly at a time when Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich faces impeachment and federal corruption charges.

Although Kirk expressed disdain for the political climate in Springfield, on the night of his November victory over Democrat Dan Seals he said cleaning up Illinois corruption was a key agenda item for him.

"Over the next two years, we are going to take on the state of Illinois, the most corrupt state of the union and clean up the Blagojevich, [Cook County Board Chairman Todd] Stroger excesses," Kirk said Nov. 4. "Tonight, we're going to celebrate and then tomorrow we clean up this state, protect our country and recover our economy."